School Spotlight

University of North Carolina – Greensboro

Location:Greensboro, North Carolina

Type:Public

Tell University of North Carolina – Greensboro to revise its speech policies by filling out this form.

Speech Code Rating

University of North Carolina – Greensboro has been given the speech code rating Green. Green light institutions are those colleges and universities whose policies nominally protect free speech.
Read more

POSTING AND DISTRIBUTION
Any organization or group may distribute in any exterior campus space, pamphlets, booklets, brochures, and other forms of written material on the condition that such pamphlets and materials are designed for informational (not commercial) purposes.
No registration or advance approval is requ... Read More

Individuals subject to this policy are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding the use of technology and information systems. Use of these systems is permitted, with the following restrictions and conditions: … The use is lawful and not prohibited by University of North Carolina Board of Governors o... Read More

No outdoor assembly, vigil, or outdoor event may be conducted within 200 feet of a childcare playground or facility, or within 50 feet of any building.
…
The University encourages contact with the University Reservations Office in the Elliott University Center, 336.334.5378, to secure space, equipment, utiliti... Read More

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro values freedom of speech as one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution and as the best means for arriving at truth and mutual understanding. Peaceable assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances are also rights g... Read More

A. DEFINITIONS
Harassment: Verbal or physical conduct that unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work or academic performance or creates an intimidating or hostile work or educational environment (see Hostile Environment as defined below).
…
B. PROHIBITED CONDUCT UNDER THIS POLICY
…
6. Sexua... Read More

1. No student shall threaten, coerce, harass or intimidate another person or identifiable group of persons, in a manner that is unlawful or in violation of a valid University policy, while on University premises or at University sponsored activities based upon the person’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientat... Read More

As a result of various issues with the First Amendment at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the school requested FIRE’s input on its “free speech zone” policy, which was under review. FIRE wrote that UNCG is legally “allowed to enforce ‘reasonable time, place and manner restrictions’ on activities that would significantly disrupt university… Read more

FIRE teamed up with the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy to release the Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System. The Report notes that UNC System’s many speech codes and illiberal restrictions on religious groups would likely not survive a legal challenge. It also… Read more

When College Libertarians members Allison Jaynes and Robert Sinnott protested against the University of North Carolina at Greenboro’s free speech zone policy they were charged with a “violation of Respect” for refusing an order to stop their protest for being outside the designated free speech zones. FIRE wrote to UNCG Chancellor Patricia Sullivan explaining UNCG’s… Read more

Eight colleges in North Carolina earn FIRE’s highest rating for free speech — more than in any other state — but 17 still maintain policies that substantially restrict student expression. PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 24, 2018 — A new report finds that North Carolina’s colleges and universities lead the way nationally for protecting student free speech. The… Read more

Both UNC Greensboro and North Carolina Central University now earn a ‘green light’ rating from FIRE, meaning the institutions do not maintain any policies that imperil free speech. The state of North Carolina is home to four of 31 institutions nationwide with this distinction. GREENSBORO, N.C., May 11, 2017 — The University of North Carolina at… Read more

Some North Carolina universities have policies that explicitly allow student groups to limit active membership to those who share the core beliefs of the group, and, as FIRE has explained before, these policies are critically important for protecting students’ right to freely associate on campus. Unfortunately, not all North Carolina schools have such policies, and… Read more

In what can serve as an excellent lesson for campus officials who target the associational rights of their students, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) has reversed its ruling against a campus religious group and will now allow the club to operate at UNCG. Citizen Link reports that the school reversed its denial… Read more

The First Amendment scored a victory this week at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill when UNC removed and arrested six hecklers who disrupted a campus speech by former Virginia congressman and illegal immigration opponent Virgil Goode. Goode was invited to speak on campus by a group called Youth for Western Civilization. Problems with disruptive… Read more

At the University of North Carolina–Greensboro (UNCG), restricting student assembly is apparently something of an administrative tradition. Torch readers may remember the travails of UNCG students Allison Jaynes and Robert Sinnott, two members of the UNCG College Libertarians who organized a 40-person rally for free speech on UNCG’s campus in November 2005. After refusing to… Read more

In yesterday’s Campus Alert, FIRE’s weekly column in the New York Post, we discussed the disturbing prevalence of free speech zones at America’s public universities. Providing readers with a representative sample of schools that either currently maintain free speech zones or have done so in the past, we wrote: Onerous speech zones have been reported… Read more

Emmett Hogan is a student at University of Michigan Law School and a luminary early FIRE employee. As we looked back on 2006 in campus rights and abuses I wanted to check in with him for his thoughts on the past year in FIRE history. This was his thoughtful response: One of FIRE’s most gripping… Read more

Last week, the Daily Southtown (Ill.) published an editorial criticizing the trustees of Joliet Junior College for adopting a new free speech zone policy. Although the new policy seems to be improved because it moves these zones closer to where students actually gather, the editorial board rightly questions why the policy wasn’t completely abolished. The… Read more

An article in the Greensboro News-Record reported today that the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) has finally given up its policy regulating “free speech zones.” UNCG’s Facility-Use Policy quarantined organized student gatherings and protests to two small areas on UNCG’s campus. In November of last year, students Allison Jaynes and Robert Sinnott protested… Read more

Although its campus is 200 acres, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) allows its students to assemble without prior approval in only two paltry “free speech areas.” FIRE believes, with good reason, that while administrators may enact reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, all of a public university is a “free speech zone.”… Read more

The number of battles FIRE has had to fight in North Carolina is staggering. Even before our recent (and victorious) headline-grabbing case at UNC Greensboro, we have defended embattled professors at UNC Wilmington, Shaw University, Forsyth Technical Community College, and Duke University; two Christian groups at UNC Chapel Hill; a student newspaper under attack at… Read more

GREENSBORO, N.C., February 1, 2006—In response to student protests, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) has agreed to respect its political student groups’ right to freedom of association. After the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) intervened, UNCG also dropped charges against students who demonstrated for freedom of speech. Now, FIRE is… Read more

A great editorial in yesterday’s Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record gives us some feeling for the hometown reaction to the case of free speech protestors Allison Jaynes and Robert Sinnott, who, until FIRE’s successful intervention, were due to be punished by UNC Greensboro for having the audacity to protest an unconstitutional “free speech zone” outside… Read more

Once again proving FIRE’s belief that universities cannot defend in public what they do in private, UNC Greensboro has dropped all charges against the students who protested the university’s “free speech zone.” As we note in today’s press release: This resounding victory for free speech came just days after FIRE and the Pope Center for… Read more

GREENSBORO, N.C., January 17, 2006—Bowing to public pressure, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) has dropped charges against two students who led a peaceful protest against the university’s policy of quarantining free speech to small areas of campus. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) brought UNCG’s repression to light in December…. Read more

Tuesday’s release of the FIRE and Pope Center Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System has already begun to get reaction from University of North Carolina administrators, who appear to be in deep denial about the fact that liberty is in a sad state on nearly all… Read more

RALEIGH, N.C., January 10, 2006—Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy released their Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System. The Report explains precisely what the First Amendment obligations of the UNC System schools are—and… Read more

A Joint Report of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Executive Summary If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or… Read more

FIRE’s case at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro is making headlines—which really isn’t surprising given the outrageousness of the university’s conduct. (Did it not occur to any administrators there that cracking down on a free-speech protest might not be the smartest PR strategy in the world?) To get a taste of the heat UNCG is… Read more

The holiday season is upon us again. Christmas trees, menorahs, and lights festoon homes and streets. Shoppers drive around mall parking lots in a desperate search through a sea of cars for a parking space. Holiday specials take to the airwaves. Americans numbering in the millions travel to visit far-away family members. And some students… Read more

GREENSBORO, N.C., December 15, 2005—The University of North Carolina–Greensboro (UNCG) is attempting to discipline two students for peacefully protesting outside two small “free speech zones” on campus. Ironically, the students were actually protesting the existence of those zones, which unconstitutionally restrict free speech. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has intervened on the… Read more